UN agency: Syrian refugee figure hits 1 million

A Syrian family who fled their home from Aleppo register, at the UNHCR center in the northern city of Tripoli, Lebanon, Wednesday, March. 6, 2013. The number of Syrians who have fled their war-ravaged country and are seeking assistance has now topped the one million mark, the United Nations’ refugee agency said Wednesday warning that Syria is heading towards a "full-scale disaster." (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
— AP

A Syrian family who fled their home from Aleppo register, at the UNHCR center in the northern city of Tripoli, Lebanon, Wednesday, March. 6, 2013. The number of Syrians who have fled their war-ravaged country and are seeking assistance has now topped the one million mark, the United Nations’ refugee agency said Wednesday warning that Syria is heading towards a "full-scale disaster." (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
/ AP

FILE - Newly arrived Syrian refugees wait for their turn to receive a mattress, blankets and other supplies, and to be assigned to tents, at the Zaatari Syrian refugees camp in Mafraq, near the Syrian border with Jordan, in this Jan. 28, 2013 file photo. In a statement released Wednesday in Geneva, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, says the number of Syrians who have fled their war-ravaged country and are seeking assistance has now reached the one million mark. Their pre— AP

FILE - Newly arrived Syrian refugees wait for their turn to receive a mattress, blankets and other supplies, and to be assigned to tents, at the Zaatari Syrian refugees camp in Mafraq, near the Syrian border with Jordan, in this Jan. 28, 2013 file photo. In a statement released Wednesday in Geneva, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, says the number of Syrians who have fled their war-ravaged country and are seeking assistance has now reached the one million mark. Their pre
/ AP

Syrian families wait their turn to register at the UNHCR center in the northern city of Tripoli, Lebanon, Wednesday, March. 6, 2013. The number of Syrians who have fled their war-ravaged country and are seeking assistance has now topped the one million mark, the United Nations’ refugee agency said Wednesday warning that Syria is heading towards a "full-scale disaster." (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)— AP

Syrian families wait their turn to register at the UNHCR center in the northern city of Tripoli, Lebanon, Wednesday, March. 6, 2013. The number of Syrians who have fled their war-ravaged country and are seeking assistance has now topped the one million mark, the United Nations’ refugee agency said Wednesday warning that Syria is heading towards a "full-scale disaster." (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
/ AP

Syrian refugee Bushra, 19, who fled her house from Homs 17 days ago, holds her son Omar, 2, as she registers at the UNHCR center in the northern city of Tripoli, Lebanon, Wednesday, March. 6, 2013. The number of Syrians who have fled their war-ravaged country and are seeking assistance has now topped the one million mark, the United Nations’ refugee agency said Wednesday warning that Syria is heading towards a "full-scale disaster." (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)— AP

Syrian refugee Bushra, 19, who fled her house from Homs 17 days ago, holds her son Omar, 2, as she registers at the UNHCR center in the northern city of Tripoli, Lebanon, Wednesday, March. 6, 2013. The number of Syrians who have fled their war-ravaged country and are seeking assistance has now topped the one million mark, the United Nations’ refugee agency said Wednesday warning that Syria is heading towards a "full-scale disaster." (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
/ AP

Syrian families wait their turn to register at the UNHCR center in the northern city of Tripoli, Lebanon, Wednesday, March. 6, 2013. The number of Syrians who have fled their war-ravaged country and are seeking assistance has now topped the one million mark, the United Nations’ refugee agency said Wednesday warning that Syria is heading towards a "full-scale disaster." (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)— AP

Syrian families wait their turn to register at the UNHCR center in the northern city of Tripoli, Lebanon, Wednesday, March. 6, 2013. The number of Syrians who have fled their war-ravaged country and are seeking assistance has now topped the one million mark, the United Nations’ refugee agency said Wednesday warning that Syria is heading towards a "full-scale disaster." (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
/ AP

BEIRUT 
The number of Syrians who have fled their war-ravaged country and are seeking assistance has now topped the 1 million mark, the U.N. refugee agency said Wednesday, warning that Syria is heading toward a "full-scale disaster."

The announcement came as government troops and rebels fought street battles in Syria's strategic northern city of Raqqa. The Syrian military dispatched reinforcements in an attempt to push out opposition gunmen who now control most of the city, activists said.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, said in Geneva that the 1 million figure is based on reports from his agency's field offices in countries neighboring Syria that have provided safe haven for refugees escaping the civil war.

"With a million people in flight, millions more displaced internally, and thousands of people continuing to cross the border every day, Syria is spiraling toward full-scale disaster," Guterres said. Syria's population is about 22 million.

In addition, several hundred thousand Syrians who have fled their country have not yet registered as refugees, suggesting the total number well exceeds 1 million, said Adrian Edwards, a spokesman for the U.N. refugee agency.

Also Wednesday, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said his country will provide armored vehicles, body armor and search-and-rescue equipment to Syria's opposition.

Britain is broadening its technical assistance as a "necessary, proportionate and lawful response to a situation of extreme humanitarian suffering," he told the House of Commons.

He said Britain is sticking to the current EU sanctions against Syria, which include an arms embargo that also prevents sending weapons to rebels fighting President Bashar Assad.

Syria's uprising began in March 2011 with protests against Assad's authoritarian rule. When the government cracked down on demonstrators, the opposition took up arms and the conflict turned into a full-blown civil war. The U.N. estimates that more than 70,000 people have been killed.

The pace of refugees fleeing the battered country has picked up dramatically over the past three months.

In Lebanon, 19-year-old Bushra, a mother of two, became the millionth Syrian refugee registered in the region since the conflict began. Since fleeing the fighting in central city of Homs a few weeks ago, Bushra has lived in the Lebanon's restive city of Tripoli, squeezed into a room with 20 other people.

"Our life conditions are very bad, it is very expensive here (in Lebanon) and we cannot find any work," Bushra, who asked to be identified with her first name for fear of government reprisals, told reporters at a UNHCR registration center in Tripoli in northern Lebanon.

The U.N. refugee agency has registered more than 300,000 Syrians in Lebanon, although its representatives say many more Syrians are living in the country in dire need of basic aid.

Guterres said the number of refugees has swelled dramatically this year, with most pouring into Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt.

More than 400,000 people have become refugees since Jan. 1, and often arrive in neighboring countries "traumatized, without possessions and having lost members of their families," he said.